Soft Drinks Consumption and the Risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

INTRODUCTION The increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has been implicated in the increased incidence of obesity and metabolic syndrome Little of the research on sugar-sweetened beverage intake has examined the consumption patterns of sugared beverages by college students, despite the vulnerabilities of this population to weight gain. The current study sought to characterize sugar-sweetened beverage intake of undergraduate students who belong to high socio-economic strata and to study its correlation with presence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS In a cross sectional, a self reported questionnaire based study about soft drink consumption (≥2/day, 1/day, <1/day). That included undergraduate medical students. Anthropometry and blood pressure were recorded and fasting glucose, insulin and lipid profile and abdominal ultrasonography for the presence of fatty liver was assessed. RESULTS A total of 242 students were studied. The students in group 1 (≥2/day) had significantly higher BMI, waist circumference and diastolic blood pressure than students of other groups. They also had higher triglycerides, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR and significantly lower levels of HDL-cholesterol. Overall (40%) students had metabolic syndromes in group 1 compared to 8% and 3% in other groups while presence of NAFLD was observed in 75%, 16% and 4% in three groups respectively. Duration of soft drink consumption had positive correlation with presence of NAFLD. CONCLUSIONS Substantial consumption of soft drinks is leading to increased obesity and cardio-metabolic risk factors in young adults. Artificially sweetened diet soft drinks have been posed as a healthier alternative due to their lack of calories but they do not guarantee protection against non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.